Letter to government ministers about taking action on the Concluding Observations from the CCRC

In June, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released their Concluding Observations for Canada in relation to the 5th/6th Review. The CCRC has written a letter to all government ministers asking them to take seriously children’s rights in Canada, report on steps already underway, and develop a comprehensive public response to all recommendations.

Read our full letter below:

Dear Minister:
Re: Implementation of Children’s Rights without Delay

Canada has an opportunity in the next six months to demonstrate that it takes children’s rights
seriously. Doing so would be the most effective way to improve conditions for children across
the country and address the continuing high rates of child abuse and neglect across the country.
Implementing the recommendations Canada received as a result of the 5 th /6 th review of children’s
rights in Canada in May, 2022 needs immediate attention.


The Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children (CCRC) welcomed the Ministerial level
commitment to improve how Canada responds to such recommendations. The CCRC is very
concerned about the delay of the promised first meeting on implementation from this fall to
April, 2023, which is close to a year after receiving the recommendations. Children whose rights
are being violated and children who participated in the review in good faith should not have to
wait a full year to hear anything about what the government plans to do with recommendations
labelled urgent by the UN Committee on the Rights of Child.

Delay in a federal-provincial meeting date should not mean no action on urgent matters. The
CCRC calls on the federal government to take action now on some of the recommendations and
report that to the meeting in April in order to demonstrate good faith and show leadership in
fulfilling Canada’s obligations to children. In addition, a draft plan of action to implement all the
recommendations should be developed by the Continuing Committee of Officials on Human
Rights (CCOHR) and tabled for the April meeting. If recommendations are being rejected, an
explanation should be provided to children and the public. This approach is warranted by the
seriousness of current violations, past failures to take obligations seriously, and the urgent label
that the UN Committee put on several recommendations.


Following are four recommendations that should be implemented before April:

  1. Table a long-overdue, full response to the first five TRC Calls to Action as a first step
    toward regular, annual reports on child welfare and full transparency on resolution of
    Indigenous children’s rights claims. (Recommendations 18,21, 32,39,45)
  2. Add child-focused actions to the National Action Plan on Suicide Prevention
    (Recommendation 35).  Suicide rates in Canada are highest among adolescents, but the
    current National Action Plan has no focus on children. Recommendations on this matter
    have been repeatedly made, leaving no excuse for continuing procrastination.
  3. Introduce legislation to prohibit all forms of violence against children (Recommendation
    25 and 26) or make Bill C____ a government bill and give it a high priority in the House
    of Commons.  Children are the only group in Canada without full protection from
    violence, which contributes to continuing high rates of abuse.  The evidence on the
    importance of this is well-established. The Government of Canada cannot say they follow evidence-based policy and continue to excuse inaction on this matter on the basis of vague measures of public opinion. In addition, Canada, as a Pathfinding Country in the global End Violence Against Children Initiative, could show global leadership by joining 56 countries who have adopted legislation to protect the right of children to grow up without violence.
  4. Name an interim focal point for monitoring implementation and investigating complaints
    (Recommendation 13 and 52). The urgent need for improved monitoring could be
    partially met by designating an interim focal point, while serious steps are taken on the
    long-standing call for a national children’s commissioner or alternative system for
    accountability. The interim mandate, overseeing implementation of these
    recommendations, would provide practical learning and momentum toward achieving a
    long-eluded effective system for implementing children’s rights. 
    Attached to this letter is a proposal for responding to all recommendations by:
    – addressing urgent items and those that can be done quickly in the next six months,
    with a report on completed actions at the April meeting;
    – tabling a full action plan within one year, including explanations for
    recommendations being rejected;
    – public reporting on progress made mid-way through this implementation period; and
    – early, transparent consultation in the preparation of Canada’s next report.
    The CCRC would be happy to discuss these proposals further or an alternative specific plan for
    implementation. Further delay without any action amounts to continuing the violations that the
    UN Committee asked Canada to address as a matter of urgency.

Appendix:
Plan to Implement Recommendations
5 th /6 th Review of Children’s Rights in Canada

Introduction
The final outcome of the 5 th /6 th  review calls for urgent action in Canada on major areas of child
policy to address the serious violations documented during the review process. Canada lags
behind other comparable countries more than 30 years after ratifying the Convention.  Each
report on Canada raises the level of urgency and the specificity of more than a 100
recommendations. Past recommendations are repeated because they have not been implemented,
without explanation.
Urgent Actions Include Major Factors for Healthy Child Development
Areas requiring urgent action include the following: 

  1. Children need access to effective complaint mechanisms that will investigate and
    redress abuses (Recommendation 13).   Indigenous children and other children, like
    Amanda Todd and Ashley Smith, should not need to use extreme measures and lengthy
    processes to access justice in Canada. 
  2. Disparities in children’s access to services in Canada (Recommendation 18) leave
    some children behind, causing life-long harm to individual children.
  3. Children are not protected from all forms of violence by law, which contributes to high
    prevalence of multiple forms of violence against children (Recommendation 27)
  4. Child welfare systems across the Canada are failing to protect children’s rights
    (recommendation 32); and 
  5. Children are going without basic needs, such as water, nutritious food, and housing,
    even though Canada now has a poverty reduction strategy. (Recommendation 39)
    Immediate Actions: Specific steps to be taken in the next six months include:
  6. Table long-overdue, full response to first five TRC Calls to Action as a first step
    toward annual reports on child welfare and full transparency on resolution of
    Indigenous children’s rights claims, e.g. TRC and MMIWG reports 
    (Recommendations 18,21, 32,39,45)
  7.  Add child-focused actions to National Action Plan on Suicide Prevention
    (Recommendation 35).  While suicide rates are highest among adolescents, the current
    policy framework has no focus on children.  This inconceivable situation reflects the
    systemic failure to consider children’s rights at all levels of government.
    Recommendations on this have been repeatedly made, leaving no excuse for the failure to
    act earlier.
  8. Introduce legislation to prohibit all forms of violence against children
    (Recommendation 25 and 26).  Children are the only group in Canada without full
    protection from violence, which contributes to continuing high rates of abuse.  The
    evidence on the importance of this is clear and 56 countries have acted.  Governments
    cannot say they follow evidence-based policy and excuse inaction on the basis of
    vague measures of public opinion.  Canada cannot be a Pathfinding Country in the
    global End Violence Against Children Initiative and lag so far behind at home. 
  9. Make the Best Interests of Children a priority criteria in eviction policies to reduce
    homelessness and inadequate/unaffordable housing for children (Recommendation
    39d).
  10. Establish ambitious annual targets for reducing child poverty, as part of the National
    Poverty Reduction Strategy (recommendation 39b).  This has been recommended
    before as an effective tool to ensure more progress on access to nutritious food,
    adequate housing, and other basic needs.  Children can’t wait until 2030; earlier action
    is feasible and warranted. 
  11. End detention of children of asylum-seekers (designated urgent in Recommendation
    42b), repatriate Canadian children from prison camps in northern Syria
    (Recommendation 47b) and protect the rights of children incarcerated with their
    parents (Recommendation 32f).  Taking these steps now would signal serious intention
    to give priority to the Best Interests of Children, which is named in several
    recommendations. 
  12. Name an interim focal point for monitoring implementation and investigating
    complaints (Recommendation 13 and 52). The urgent need for improved monitoring
    could be met by designating an interim focal point, while serious steps are taken on the
    long-standing call for a national children’s commissioner or alternative system for
    accountability.  This national body could be focused on what is within their power to
    affect, as well as a research function to ensure children in different parts of the country
    are treated equally. The interim mandate, overseeing implementation of these
    recommendations, would provide practical learning and momentum toward achieving a
    long-eluded effective system for children’s rights. 
    The CCRC recommends that the federal Minister for Children be mandated as an interim
    focal point to ensure effective implementation of these recommendations, including
    recommendations for more permanent systems for accountability.   
    Medium Term: Areas for action with measurable progress by 2025, midway before next
    review
    To show serious intent, implementation plans tabled in April need to lay out steps to achieve
    measurable results by 2025 on recommendations that require more time, and full implementation
    or explanation by next review.  Governments cannot repeat the cycle of waiting until a year
    before the next review to start serious work on implementation. If early review of all recommendations identifies some that cannot be done or are deemed inadvisable, a full explanation or alternative approach should be tabled to ensure accountability to children as rights-holders.   Examples of areas for early attention and interim progress reports include: 
  1. Data and analysis (recommendation 11)
    The need for improved data collection and analysis is a long-standing issue that can be
    addressed, with benefits for all parties.  Specific steps in an improvement plan need serious
    engagement with civil society partners to ensure more progress this time. 
  2. Human Rights Education (Recommendation 41)
    Mapping current practices by all provinces in the first part of this review period would allow for
    implementation of improvements and measurable progress on this essential area for action.
  3. Access to Education (Recommendation 40) 
    All provinces could do analysis and present findings during first part of this review period, e.g.
    equitable access to appropriate programs, access to sex ed, and discipline practices, to allow
    improvements and progress before next review.  
  4. Best Interest of the Child and CRIA (Recommendations 19, 10b, 42a, and others)
    Use of Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs) before adopting child-focused policies and
    legislation is a long-standing priority, also for CCRC.  This report calls for the use of “ex-ante”
    and “ex-post” CRIAs to assess potential impacts before adoption of new policies and evaluate
    outcomes more effectively. Early progress on the use of CRIA to assess potential impacts before
    adoption could allow for some progress on “ex-post” use of CRIA before next review.
  5. Children’s Rights and Climate Change (Recommendation 37)
    Revision of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, currently underway, provides an
    opportunity to incorporate a focus on children and children’s rights in many areas of
    environmental policy.  The CCRC has made recommendations to integrate children’s rights in
    policies specific to the environment. In addition, implementation of existing climate change
    framework legislation could include measures to implement this recommendation before 2025
    and show progress by 2027. 
    Longer-term Actions to Implement Recommendations before next review
     A longer implementation plan may be needed for some recommendations.  These should start
    early to be able to show measurable progress before the next review.  Examples include:
  6. Introduce a comprehensive law to ensure equal implementation for all children
    (Recommendation 7). In the 3th/4th review Canada was asked to develop a pathway for full incorporation of the CRC into Canadian law, but nothing was done.  One example, incorporation into a new divorce act, was cited as progress without addressing all the other areas of children’s rights.  This time, governments need to start early, including discussion with the Canadian Bar Association Children’s Rights Caucus and others, to seriously advance incorporation of children’s rights in Canadian law, with tools to ensure equitable treatment for all children. The CCRC has long recommended adoption of general legislation that incorporates the CRC into Canadian law, with a 10 year timeframe for review and revision of all relevant laws
  7. National strategy for full implementation with provincial plans (Recommendation 8) and other
    calls for national strategies on specific aspects of children’s rights, e.g. violence prevention, ILO
    138 to prevent child labour) 
    Implementing this long-standing recommendation is inter-related with progress on other
    recommendations.  The CCRC recommends starting work early and treating it as a working
    document through this review period to ensure genuine progress this time. 
  8. Children’s Rights and the Business Sector (recommendation 16) 
    This area of children’s rights is very important but continually fails to get adequate attention in
    Canada.   Perhaps the existing Ombudsman office could be asked to pursue both previous
    recommendations and this year’s recommendation to make substantive progress before the next
    review. 
    Conclusion
    There are many other recommendations that also deserve attention.  The examples in this letter
    show how implementation could be taken more seriously so that genuine progress could be made
    before the next review.  In addition to the benefits for children in Canada, this approach would
    allow Canada to demonstrate good value for the resources invested in human rights
    implementation and reporting processes.  Most importantly, it would show children that their
    rights are more than fine words.  
    If government officials have objections to this approach, the CCRC invites them to table an
    alternative plan for implementation before the April meeting.  Hopefully the stated commitment
    to also improve the participation of young people and engagement with civil society
    organizations will lead to regular, open discussions at all stages from now to the next review.

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